Ikenga

by Nnedi Okorafor

“The car isn’t far from here,” Nnamdi said. “I’m going to . . . change. Then I’ll go in and get a feel for the place. Maybe I can learn where the keys are. Follow me to the door, but stay out here and listen in.”

  Chioma nodded. “I’ll whistle if I see someone coming.” She grinned. “Go on. Change. I want to see this!”

  “Right,” he said. He exhaled, relaxed, and focused on their task of retrieving Bonny’s precious car. Then he shifted into the Man. The change came easily and that gave him a bit of confidence. However, he was still scared.

  “Woooooow,” Chioma said.

  “Be careful, okay?” he said, trying to stay focused. “Don’t try anything crazy.”

  “I should be telling you that,” she said. She took his big hand. “Don’t . . . don’t kill anyone.”

  “I won’t,” he said firmly.

  “And don’t get killed either.”

  They scrambled across the empty street and Nnamdi went inside. A bell on the door rang as he entered.

  “Weu! Weu! Weu! It is an evil spirit! Don’t hurt us, o!” one of the young men cried when he saw the Man coming. He looked about twenty years old, was muscular like a wrestler, and was as tall as Nnamdi’s father, yet he was shrieking and cowering against the wall. Nnamdi was disgusted.

  “We have money, o!” the other said. He looked older than his partner, yet he had tears in his eyes and was breathing like he was about to die. “In . . . in the back, we . . .”

  “Shut up!” Nnamdi roared. “There are cars in a lot not far from here. I know this place is involved. Where are the car keys?”

  The two men froze.

  “If neither of you speaks, both of you will be hurt.” He grabbed the one who was not crying and lifted him up.

  “The keys aren’t here! There’s a woman! She is the boss. Her name’s Mrs. Puneneh! She carries the keys with her. She’s on her way here! Just . . .”

  There was a click from the back of the room and the back door swung open. A tall man in dirty jeans and an even dirtier T-shirt walked in carrying a bag of garbage. He swayed a bit, obviously a little drunk. Nnamdi had seen this man before and he knew precisely how to deal with him. He turned to Chioma at the front door. “Chioma, go find her! She’s tall and kind of mean looking!”

  “But—”

  “Go, Chioma! Go find that lady before she gets away!”

  She ran off. Nnamdi sighed, relieved. He didn’t want her to see what he was about to do.

  “Three Days’ Journey,” Nnamdi bellowed, turning to the swaying drunken man.

  Three Days’ Journey dropped the garbage. “What the hell?! You again?!” He reached into his pocket. Nnamdi felt his heart somersault. He leapt to the side just as Three Days’ Journey brought the gun out and fired. BLAM! A computer monitor caved in where Nnamdi had been moments before. Nnamdi moved like the wind, his mind calming so completely that it nearly shut down. He was in the zone, sure of where he needed to move and how he needed to do it. His life depended on all this.

  “Oof!” Three Days’ Journey gasped as Nnamdi threw his body into him. They went crashing to the floor beside a wall. Nnamdi grabbed Three Days’ Journey by the arm and he tried to twist and squirm himself free. With his other hand, Nnamdi grabbed the gun.

  “Ayeee!” Three Days’ Journey shrieked. “Leave me! Leave me! Ahhhhh!” He shoved a dirty bare foot into Nnamdi’s gut. The man stank worse than putrid garbage.

  Something smashed against the back of Nnamdi’s head and he dropped the gun.

  “Ha!” one of the men shouted. “Take that!” The laptop crashed to the ground behind Nnamdi and he could feel bits of plastic hit the backs of his legs.

  Nnamdi shuddered, fire in his veins. He saw the edges of the world go reddish black. He could crush stone with his bare hands. He could kill all three of these men. His head ached from the blow. Three Days’ Journey was kicking him in the belly and each kick felt like death. He’d managed to stay on his feet all this time, but he knew he would fall soon. Where was the gun?

  Nnamdi tried to turn from Three Days’ Journey to look for it and that’s when the other man jumped on his back and began to strangle him with his hands.

  “Yes! That’s it!” Three Days’ Journey screeched. “This is the idiot who has been messing up our business in Kaleria. Take him down! Stop him! There is a large reward! Then we can get on with our business!”

  A thousand things went through Nnamdi’s mind and each moment brought more pain. But then he saw it in his mind. The dream of his home, his town, the place that his father had worked so hard to protect, the place his father died for, on fire. The death of his father all for nothing.

  He flung the man from his back; he got up and ran off. Nnamdi whirled around and grabbed Three Days’ Journey. His mind was in the red-and-black haze as he slammed Three Days’ Journey against the wall again and again. Finally, Three Days’ Journey went limp.

  “Nnamdi!”

  He dropped Three Days’ Journey and whipped around. There Chioma was, standing behind the door, her eyes wide as she stared at him. He opened the door while keeping an eye on the remaining man who now cowered against the wall.

  “Snap out of it!” she said. “Before you kill someone!”

  Nnamdi shook his head and his mind cleared. “I . . .” He looked at the unconscious Three Days’ Journey.

  “He’s okay, I think,” Chioma said. “See? He just moved a bit. Come on,” she said. “Before he fully wakes up!” She raised her hand and shook a large set of keys.

  Then Nnamdi’s eye fell on the coil of copper wiring. “One thing first,” he said, reaching for it.

  * * *

  “I saw her coming to the shop just like that guy said she would,” Chioma said as Nnamdi wrapped another coil of copper around Three Days’ Journey’s arms. “She heard all the fighting and thought it was the police!” Chioma laughed. “She was too scared to go in. So I said, ‘Mrs. Puneneh, give me the keys; Three Days’ Journey told me to get them.’ She just wanted to get out of there.”

  “You should go away,” Three Days’ Journey spat, his nose bleeding all over the front of his filthy shirt. He pulled at his bound hands and grunted angrily. “What are you? Some sort of masquerade? Once I get out of these things, I’ll send hell after you! This is MY business! My merchandise! My—”

  Nnamdi shoved one of the black cloths the computer technicians used to clean dust from the computer screens into Three Days’ Journey’s mouth. “When your friends find you, you tell them the Man did this,” he growled at the technician who was bound beside Three Days’ Journey. He leaned closer to them. “You tell them that I am an evil spirit who does evil on people who do evil.” The technician who was not crying looked horrified and then he, too, began to sniffle. Even Three Days’ Journey stopped trying to shout through the cloth in his mouth.

  “Oh my God,” Chioma groaned. “What are you crying for? As if you’re the one being maltreated. Thieves and cowards! You should all be ashamed.”

  “Forget them,” Nnamdi said. “Let’s go.”

  They exited the back door into the night.

  “I know this place,” he said. He’d seen it in his mind. They were close. He relaxed and shut his eyes. His mind was like a map. He opened his eyes. “That way!” he said. He looked toward the opening in the trees. “Take my hand,” he said. He felt Chioma’s small familiar hand in his large one. “There’s a path.”

  The lot looked like it used to be for football before it housed at least fifty stolen cars. Nnamdi looked at the keys. They were each labeled with a number. The cars were, too. Thankfully, the pattern and arrangement was easy to figure out. At least they wouldn’t have to try a whole bunch of keys to start Mr. Bonny’s car. But finding which key wasn’t the problem; the problem was that they didn’t know how to drive.

  “Nnamdi, wait,” she said. “I didn’t want to say it
in there in front of those idiots, but after she threw the keys at me, she said, ‘Tell him I’ll see to the hostages!’”

  “Tell who? Three Days’ Journey? Hostages?! It’s not just Ruff Diamond?”

  “Oh! So it’s a whole scamming ring! My mom’s been saying that’s been happening a lot lately. They take people from rich families.”

  “Where are they being held?” Nnamdi asked.

  “How should I know?! Try to locate them with your ‘GPS power’!”

  Nnamdi frowned and then he blinked, realizing what she meant. “Oh,” Nnamdi said. “Yeah!” He leaned against one of the cars as another thought came to him. “Do you think that kidnapping people is what leads to Kaleria’s downfall?”

  Chioma shrugged. “Maybe, it’s everything. Kidnapping, thieves, killing. Maybe corruption is like a fuel and all it needs is one spark to set it on fire.”

  Nnamdi nodded. “So not one bad thing but many . . . piling up.”

  “Yes, yes,” Chioma said, impatient. “But one thing at a time, Nnamdi. Find Ruff Diamond. And hurry. Who knows how long before Three Days’ Journey’s guys come looking for us?”

  “Okay . . . right . . . shhh,” he said, gathering his senses. “Don’t make a sound, okay?”

  Chioma nodded. She leaned against a car and waited. Nnamdi knew she wanted to ask him a question, but instead she kept quiet. She was focused . . . as he had to be. He shifted his attention to his other friend, Ruff Diamond. Ruff Diamond liked to talk and look at girls. He liked mangoes, like Chioma. Nnamdi latched on to that. And soon his mind’s eye was pulled away from the lot full . . . of cars. That way. He could see it. A white house surrounded by a concrete gate. But the gate was open. A new golden one was being installed. Though it was nighttime, Nnamdi could see it all.

  Through the open half-built, half-disassembled gate, past a shiny black SUV and two dusty old cars in the large driveway. To a window on the lower part of the three-story house. Down and into a basement. Full of people. Sweating. Some sitting, others standing. There! Ruff Diamond!

  He was sitting in a corner, staring blankly at a wall. He wore jeans and his favorite red shirt, but the armpits and belly were dark with sweat. A tall woman was standing before him. She was wearing fresh clothes and makeup. She brought her hand back and slapped him across the face.

  “That Puneneh woman is there already,” Nnamdi said, opening his eyes. “There are many hostages, not just Ruff Diamond. Some who don’t seem to have been there long.” For a moment, he had a hard time focusing and he leaned to the side a little. Chioma moved closer, propping him up.

  “Are you all right?”

  Nnamdi nodded. “Head hurting again,” he said. “Let’s go.”

  But he felt nauseous, too. And more than out of sorts. It was worse than before, on the bus. No time for him to worry about that now, though. The Puneneh woman must have connected his presence with Ruff Diamond. Maybe she even thought Ruff Diamond’s parents had called the police. Who knew what she was going to do to him now?

  “Chioma, see that car on the far left? The blue Mercedes?”

  Chioma looked for a long moment and then nodded.

  “That’s Bonny’s car. Get it started,” he said. His forehead was painfully pounding and he breathed through his mouth in order not to vomit. He groaned and then forced himself to stand up straight. “Turn on the lights when you see me come back. And if . . . if I don’t come back . . .”

  “You’ll come back,” she snapped. Her eyes glazed, but she didn’t let her tears fall. She took the keys, focused.

  “I don’t know how we are going to get the car out, but . . .”

  “I can drive,” Chioma said.

  “What?”

  Chioma only shook her head. “I have idiot older cousins who thought it was funny to teach an eight-year-old. Nearly got me killed. But taught me a lot, too. It’s a long story. Go get Ruff Diamond!”

  Nnamdi ran through the bushes as fast as his powerful legs would take him. It was about a third of a mile between the parking lot and the house. He still felt ill but he pushed through it. Time was of the essence. His sharp eyes saw right through the darkness and he arrived at the open gate in no time. The white house with the half-gold and half-white gate loomed. From where he stood he could hear something happening in the basement. The footsteps of many people. Shouting. The sound of a gun firing. Screams. It was deep night now and Nnamdi was glad for the cover of darkness as he ran across the driveway. He heard more shots at the front door. He tried to open it, but it was locked.

  Ruff Diamond’s in there, he thought. Maybe he’s been shot. This thought cleared his mind and chased away his nausea. He grasped the doorknob and, controlling his force, shoved the door open. The hinges cracked loudly. It swung open the rest of the way, revealing an empty hallway. No guards. They must all be downstairs, Nnamdi thought. He ran inside, following the screams and shouts.

  The rest of what happened was a blank for Nnamdi; it was like a veil had been placed over his eyes when he wasn’t looking and something beyond him was erasing his mind. When he finally came back to himself, he was still the Man, standing tall in the high-ceilinged basement. There were about twenty people standing around him staring. There was a puddle of vomit in the corner.

  Mrs. Puneneh was lying on the floor, unconscious, in an awkward position, her nose bleeding. There was a crushed gun at his feet. Three angry, pummeled-looking men were tied to pipes with extension cords and being held down by eight sweaty men and women. And three more unconscious men were on the floor. Nnamdi’s huge fists ached and there was a piercing pain in his left leg. He had a horrible taste in his mouth.

  “Are you all right?” a woman asked.

  Nnamdi only looked at her.

  “At least he stopped vomiting,” a man said.

  “Is he even human?” another man asked. “Maybe bullets do not wound him?”

  “If his stomach can wound him, bullets surely can,” the first man said.

  “We need to get out of here,” another woman said.

  Nnamdi leaned against the wall. He felt faint. “Yes,” he said weakly. “There is no one else in the house. Get out!”

  There was a mad rush for the stairs and that was when Nnamdi spotted Ruff Diamond. He was staring hard at Nnamdi.

  “Do you need help?” Ruff Diamond asked.

  Nnamdi nodded. He’d looked down and, though he saw no wound on his shadow skin, he saw a puddle of blood pooling at the heel of his left foot. The sight shocked him more than anything. Why hadn’t he thought he could truly get hurt doing all this superhero stuff? But some part of him had seen all this as a game. Am I going to die? he wondered. Ruff Diamond was tall, but he was still only twelve years old. He could barely support Nnamdi. But it was better than nothing. Together, they lurched up the stairs. And as they moved, Nnamdi began to remember all that had happened when he’d gone down into that basement. He shivered.

  “You’re the Man, huh?” Ruff Diamond asked.

  “Yes.” He was glad to be pulled away from his thoughts. He’d taken on six men and one woman at once. In the struggle, he’d been shot in the leg. That’s what the pain was.

  “I thought you only protected Kaleria.”

  Nnamdi paused, remembering more. Mrs. Puneneh had shot him. He’d walked right up to her and grabbed her gun, crushed it with his bare hands, and then whacked her hard across the face with an open palm.

  “Aren’t you from Kaleria?” Nnamdi said. He rubbed his temples as he remembered more. He’d punched a man hard in the gut and slammed another against the wall like a dirty carpet, but he hadn’t killed anyone. Then the hostages had rushed in and attacked the others.

  “You came for me?” Ruff Diamond asked.

  “Yes.” No one in the room was dead. But how was that possible?

  “All those other kidnapped people,” Ruff Diamond said. “T
hey are from other towns; three are even from Lagos! We need more people like you.”

  If there were more like me, who knows what would happen? he thought. I barely even know what happens when there is one of me. Nnamdi and Ruff Diamond stepped onto the driveway and found everyone was standing around, trying to decide how to get out of Tse-Kucha. Nnamdi fought to think clearly. He’d freed these people; they were his responsibility. And if they didn’t get out of here soon, Mrs. Puneneh’s backup would arrive and recapture them all. Chioma, he had to get back to Chioma. And that’s when he had the idea.

  “Everyone,” Nnamdi said. “I know how we can all get out of here. Follow me!”

  Of course, they followed him.

  * * *

  “Your leg!” Chioma exclaimed. “You’ve been shot!”

  “It’s fine,” Nnamdi said. His leg was aflame with angry pain, but Chioma didn’t need to know this.

  “Good,” she said, looking at the people behind him. She nodded vigorously. “You did it! And you brought everyone!”

  Nnamdi had to strain to speak because of the pain. “Yeah. I thought we could use—”

  “I had the same idea, to bring them here,” Chioma said. “We can all escape! I already put the keys in each car.”

  Within minutes, escaped hostages were starting cars all over the lot. They took the ones on the outside that could be most easily driven off. A few of them drove alone, but most drove in twos and threes. They drove away without a thank-you or a goodbye.

  Ruff Diamond, the only kid among the hostages, stayed with Nnamdi. “There she is!” Ruff Diamond said, spotting Chioma. They ran to her and Nnamdi couldn’t help grinning when he realized that she’d found the Mercedes. She and Nnamdi looked at each other for a long moment. Then Nnamdi nodded. There was no other way. Plus, they were the only ones heading back to Kaleria.

  Chioma gave Ruff Diamond a hug. “Thank God you’re okay,” she said. Before he could ask, she added, “I’ll explain in the car.”

  The three of them climbed in, Nnamdi in the driver’s seat and Chioma in the passenger seat. Ruff Diamond got in the back and immediately locked the door.